FPV practice sessions allow pilots to refine their skills. Practice is essential for all activities, especially drone racing where control and reaction times are so fundamental. As is the case for most activities, there are certain methods to maximise learning effectiveness and efficiency. In this article, I will discuss my FPV practice tips to help you optimise your time at the field.
Why Do You Need to Practice?
Drone racing is a sport where you ultimately use your subconscious to pilot the drone. An FPV practice session is a way of teaching your subconscious the controls of the drone and the appropriate instantaneous reactions to a situation. Through FPV practice, the pilot also develops the speed at which they can learn their surroundings or track. The quicker a pilot can develop track or surrounding knowledge the quicker and more effectively they can refine their racing lines or freestyle technique.
How to Determine What to Practice
After an FPV race day, I always make the time to sit down and reflect on the event. By watching my DVR, I can see what aspects of racing need improvement and what aspects I was happy with (for the time being as there is always room to improve). When re-watching my DVR, I will usually analyse aspects of the footage such as:
- “how many laps/flights did it take me to learn the track?”
- “how quickly did I develop a series of racing lines and improve upon them?”
- “what were the main course elements I was losing time on?”
- “how consistent was my pace once I learnt the track?”
- “what caused me to crash and how could I avoid it next time?”
Watch my DVR below to see what you think needs improvement:[vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JralcZDttRo” el_width=”70″ align=”center”][vc_column_text]From the clip, I noted that I was mainly losing time on the dive gate due to a wide racing line. I also noted that time could be gained by using tighter lines through the slalom gates. After reviewing this clip, I would add these two course elements to my FPV practice list. After an event, I also like to reflect on my FPV psychology and how effective I was at staying calm. Mental reflection is more important than DVR analysis in my opinion as a pilot’s mental state can determine the outcome of their race event. To learn more on mindset, you can read my article on FPV psychology. Though these two methods of reflection, I can usually form an accurate picture of what I should improve on at my next FPV practice session.
Types of Practice
Once I have determined what I need to work on at my next FPV practice session, I then use this knowledge to determine how I should effectively practice. There are many types of FPV practice and below are the practice elements which I deemed to be the most beneficial. I will discuss each FPV practice element and how it can be used to improve a certain aspect of your flying.
Track Element Drills
Track element drills are a simple type of FPV practice which is useful for your improvement of single course elements. This is quite a common FPV practice element as every pilot has their kryptonite when it comes to track elements. Recently, spiral gates are the element which I have been working to improve on.
text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_single_image image=”4038″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]To practice a course element, I recommend setting up some gates (or finding suitable tree branches) and spending a few packs practicing that specific track element. When practicing an element, make sure to continually reverse your direction. This prevents development of a turning preference. I also recommend placing a flag (or tree) before and after your FPV practice course element to force yourself to approach it from both directions. Having a set exit direction also assists in linking course elements together which is useful for FPV practice on full sized tracks.
Full Track FPV Practice
Full track FPV practice varies slightly from individual track element practice. Once your subconscious has developed its own model of managing course elements, it also needs to know how to quickly and effectively link them together. Full track FPV practice allows this development to occur. The more your brain learns how to optimise course element linking, the quicker it will be able to do it. Course element linking is also known as forming a racing line. Knowing the physics behind racing lines is also optimal so that your brain can generate the ideal line it should be taking and to work towards it. Aaron covers racing lines in his article here. To assist with racing line development, I also re-watch my DVR after around four packs to consciously analyse my racing line. I took this from racing games where I found that watching my replays provided crucial information regarding where my racing lines needed improvement. To optimise the use of a track, I recommend running around the track in reverse direction once you have a good feel for the track and are managing consistent pace.
Using a Race Tracker
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]When practicing a full track, a race tracker can be both beneficial and detrimental depending on the element of your flying which you wish to practice. The advantage of a race tracker is its ability to pressure you with constant timing updates, allowing the pilot to accustom themselves to staying calm under pressure. Timing also provides an update of race pace allowing for quick analysis of the previous lap and whether your applied racing line was effective or not. The best personal race trackers are the Immersion RC LapRF and the TBS RaceTracker.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_single_image image=”4034″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]During FPV practice, a race tracker becomes detrimental when trying to learn a new track. I find that the cause of this is due to my mind focusing on lap time improvements rather than racing line refinement. Once I can feel that my pace is consistent meaning that I have developed my racing lines, I will switch to the race tracker. This takes me anywhere between three to thirty packs depending on the track. Once you have consistent pace, race tracking promotes slight racing line improvement by providing quantitative feedback.
As a word of caution, using a race tracker for the first time can make you nervous, pressured and more likely to crash. For this reason, expect your propeller replacement frequency to initially double until you become used to lap timing.
Practicing With Others
My last FPV practice method is to practice with others. Like a race tracker, this develops your ability to handle pressure. It is also a good way of meeting local FPV community members. Another advantage of FPV practice with friends is that you can all discuss tips, racing lines and improvements for each other. Ideally, FPV practice with friends is most effective if they are varying levels of skill above you. This way, you can set yourself goals to progressively match and beat their pace. The ability to fly with others is also an excellent way of gauging your FPV practice improvements relative to theirs. To beat other pilots of similar skill levels, your rate of skill advancement as a result of practice must exceed their own. If I’m practicing with slower pilots, handicapping myself with a race start delay is a fun and effective way of introducing a challenge. The pressure felt when racing does vary to lap timing pressure but to make your FPV practice more realistic, why not use both.
Gate Size
A general FPV practice tip I recommend is to use small gates for the purpose of improving precision and accuracy. I personally use 1m by 1m (~3.5ft x 3.5ft) square gates which have ¼ the opening area of standard 2m by 2m (~7ft x 7ft) Multi GP style gates. Having become used to smaller gates, the larger gates often used in racing present a smaller challenge. Larger gates essentially become track markers rather than obstacles. Small gates are also easier to transport and cheaper to build as they use less material.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_single_image image=”4037″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]
Freestyle Practice
Freestyle FPV practice has similar elements to racing practice however the focus is usually different. Like racing, freestyle practice focuses on teaching your subconscious how to fly and learn new environments. The difference with freestyle is the goal to refine and develop a distinct style or technique rather than the racing goal of improving speed and lap times. Like racing FPV practice, reviewing freestyle footage is also beneficial for discovering potential improvements. Practicing tracks and course elements can also be beneficial for freestyles to teach drone control. Similarly, specific tricks should also be practiced to improve the smoothness, accuracy and precision of the manoeuvre. I recommend practicing new tricks in open spaces with a margin of height between your drone and the ground.
How Do You Do FPV Practice?
This article has been based off my experiences from my years of flying FPV. Every pilot is different, so I want to know how you practice. Leave a comment below with your own FPV practice tips and tricks.
Final Remark
Hopefully this article will be helpful in allowing you to maximise the effectiveness of your FPV practice sessions. Efficiently practicing will assist in the climb up the FPV learning curve, making you a pro pilot in no time![/vc_column_text][vc_separator]
Great writeup and tips! It takes practice to improve! 🙂
What bag is that, in the first picture?
That is the Multistar bag. GetFPV also offers a great selection of bags which you should definitely check out!
Thank you for the great write-up.
I wish there was a place to submit article suggestions. Since there isn’t or I can’t find it, how about an article about Maximizing your time in the field? My issue is that it takes me longer to get to the area where I can fly versus the time I can actually fly.